Saturday, May 29, 2004

Thursday, May 27, 2004

So I went to see Shrek 2 today, and it was great fun. I must say, I took a certain perverse pleasure in imagining Antonio Banderas (who was a scene-stealer fo sheezy) in a recording studio somewhere being told by the voice director "Ok, now in this scene you've just been caught licking yourself by the princess; and go!"

This was only topped, of course, by the perverse pleasure taken in knowing that I and possibly one or two others of all the people in the audience knew exactly why the fairy godmother was absolutely fabulous.

Pics of Cape Party Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back With Liquor, will be up when I feel like it.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

The extra-potent sandwich passed rigorous testing in both branches of the FDA in February. In clinical trials, 96 percent of patients who administered the sandwich orally experienced a deliciousness they described as "heightened," "intense," or even "overwhelming." In the same trial, only 16 percent of those who received placebo sandwiches reported experiencing high levels of deliciousness.

In preparation for Monday's announcement, Pfizer produced 800,000 units of the oral sandwich and distributed them to pharmacies nationwide. Additionally, Pfizer personnel sent out samples of Hoagizine and educated physicians on patient-screening procedures, treatment regimens, and serving suggestions.

[...]

Pfizer spokesman Abdul Johnson said Pfizer may soon offer an even more potent version of the sandwich, Hoagizine CM, which contains 10 grams of chipotle mayonnaise.

1. you know the person you stole this from how exactly?I met sarah during Bahstahn Reunion #1 of the current year when crashing on the Enforcer's couch.2. top three current obsessions:Final Fantasy XI, Jennifer Garner, Casper3. if you had to only eat one snack food for the rest of your life, what would it be?Snack food, eh? Probably Cheetos. Unless they find a way to make filet minion into a chip.4. if you could choose one thing about your personal appearance to change (with magic, not scalpels) what would it be?I would make it so that eating burned about half of the calories of whatever I'm eating.5. if you could choose one thing about your personality to change (with magic, not therapy) what would it be?I would like to be able to be more patient with people who aren't as competent as I am, as my percieved (and quite possibly real) contempt is getting me in trouble at work.6. say you use a fun yet probably illegal music downloading site – which one do you use?Let's say instead I use a fun yet probably illegal anime downloading site - it would be called suprnova.org.7. what is the most crazy, outlandish thing you would do for, say, $9.76 million dollars?Per a you-had-to-be-there-conversation at 35 Chester, I would drink approximately 1 liter of urine.8. if you had to be a contestant on a reality tv show, what kind of show would it be?Do quiz shows count as reality? If not, I'd have to say an acting version of American Idol.9. if you could only watch one television channel for the rest of your life, which one would it be?Oooooh tough one. Probably comedy central, for the Daily Show.10. top three favorite websites of the moment:http://slashdot.org/ http://www.theonion.com/ http://www.google.com/11. do you have a favorite recipe of all time – if so, tell me how to make it right here: Take several potatos and boil for 10 minutes. Carve into medium sized chunks, cover with extra virgin olive oil, salt, taragon, rosemary. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 while occasionally brushing with more olive oil (or butter) until edges are golden brown and crispy. 12. book that influenced you as a child:Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, A Stitch In Time, and (huh, I never realized this but it explains a lot) Anne of Green Gables. Oh, and Antoine St. Exuperie's Le Petit Prince.13. say you’re on an airplane – where are you most likely going?Boston14. where would you rather be going?LA, or possibly Tokyo15. favorite animated character of all time:Ayanami Rei16. top three movie soundtracks (movies of stage musicals don’t count): City Of Angels, The Breakfast Club, Jurassic Park/Star Wars: A New Hope (tie)17. best villain EVER (doesn’t matter if they are from a book, movie, tv show, whatever):The Joker18. if you had to choose between electricity and running water which would you choose?Electricity. I would leash my cat and let him search out running water in the middle of downtown Milwaukee, and you know what? He'd find some.19. having spent a long sunny day at the beach, you are parched. God loves you and opens a deli where everything is free right there on the sand. you have every type of bottled water imaginable right there for the taking – which one do you choose?Probably Aquafina or IceMountain20. really, what should you actually be doing right now?Work...

I have a bachelors degree in computer science, I know 15 different computer languages, I can write a compiler, a ray-tracer, and a network protocol, and for the past 5 months I've been doing USER ADMINISTRATION.

Friday, May 14, 2004

"Do you want to know how I know, beyond any doubt, that I am an actor at heart?

It's quite simple really. Any time that I'm alone for any significant stretch of time, even just an hour, I talk to myself. I get these ideas for scenes, not even scenes, just scenelets, and I act them out. I speak soliloquies and confessions, explanations and songs, whispered secrets or foreign accents. Whatever wanders through my head, when I'm alone and social propriety doesn't bind me, I emote. It's not something I do purposely, either; I simply find myself talking aloud to the wall, in character."

I was watching tv 5 minutes ago, spaced out for a few seconds, and then turned to Casper and said the above, verbatim. Then I had to rewind.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

"The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday, May 10, 2004

Secrecy and wishful thinking, the Pentagon official said, are defining characteristics of Rumsfeld’s Pentagon, and shaped its response to the reports from Abu Ghraib. “They always want to delay the release of bad news—in the hope that something good will break,” he said. The habit of procrastination in the face of bad news led to disconnects between Rumsfeld and the Army staff officers who were assigned to planning for troop requirements in Iraq. A year ago, the Pentagon official told me, when it became clear that the Army would have to call up more reserve units to deal with the insurgency, “we had call-up orders that languished for thirty or forty days in the office of the Secretary of Defense.” Rumsfeld’s staff always seemed to be waiting for something to turn up—for the problem to take care of itself, without any additional troops.

Were the soldiers involved way the fuck out of line? Absolutely. But the abuse at Abu Ghraib should have been caught and dealt with a long time ago; world-wide outrage could have been stemmed if the White House has issued a press release saying that abuse had been found, stopped, and the responsible parties punished. Instead we hear it from 60 Minutes II and the Red Cross.

More:

“This is beyond the pale in terms of lack of command attention,” a retired major general told me, speaking of the abuses at Abu Ghraib. “Where were the flag officers? And I’m not just talking about a one-star,” he added, referring to Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the commander at Abu Ghraib who was relieved of duty. “This was a huge leadership failure.”

I don't think Rumsfeld was directly responsible for the abuse, and I think a lot of the calls for his resignation are politically rather than patriotically motivated. But the current administration has repeatedly decided that it knows better than the American public how to handle difficult situations, and despite repeatedly being proved wrong they maintain their culture of secrecy and denial. These people aren't deliberately trying to ruin the country as the conspiracy theorists want to believe, but they are not fit to be running it either. (I've not seen much from Kerry that leads me to believe him much better, but that's a separate rant).

Thought that scares me about November: Bush et. al. have lost a lot of political capital and public confidence over the last twelve months, and their numbers are the lowest they've ever been. But we've seen before that Karl Rove always has an ace up his sleeve. I suspect Dick Cheney will not be coming back as VP this fall, so where does that leave us? I'm very afraid that Bush will run with Dr. Rice as his VP. Is this possible? I think there are a lot of swing voters who would vote for a black, female VP candidate on principle. Seriously, has a National Security Advisor ever "gotten the call" to join a ticket?